I am a Burmese exile aimlessly wandering in this imperfect world. Here are my essays about Burma and anything else I feel like writing about. And some translated works of selected Burmese authors. Bridging Burma to the world this Blog is more of a Politically-Oriented Literary Blog than a Plain News Blog or a Sophisticated Thoughts Blog. And Please Forgive me for using some photos and videos from Internet without asking permission first, SORRY.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Pechora Air-Defence Missile Systems of Burma Army

The modern
Pechora 2M Air-Defence Missile Systems now protecting the air space directly
above Burma is the commercial version of Soviet S-125 SAM
(Surface-to-air-missile) Systems initially introduced by the now-defunct Soviet
Union in 1964.

The
S-125 missile systems were first deployed around Moscow, augmenting the S-25
and S-75 sites already ringing the city, as well as in other parts of the USSR.

Since Russia
replaced the old S-125 missiles guarding Soviet air space with more
sophisticated SA-10 and SA-12 systems the old S-125 missiles were being
upgraded with new radar guidance systems and exported to foreign countries
aligned with Russia’s strategic interest.

These
refurbished S-125 missile systems are rebadged as Pechora 1M and sold primarily
to the Yugoslavia and Egypt. The Pechora 1M was basically a stationary
air-defence missile system and during the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia,
despite their initial success in dropping a few NATO planes off the sky, almost
every missile system was destroyed by NATO since they gave away their exact position
once a missile was fired.

Pechora
2M was the improvement of Pechora 1M as both missiles and the radar-guidance
system were now truck-mounted and all the interconnecting cable system between the
fire-control and the targeting antennas and guidance radar were replaced with
electro-magnetic wave system.

Technical Details of Pechora 2M Missile
System

In
Pechora 2M the missiles are typically deployed on fixed turrets containing two
or four but carried ready-to-fire on ZIL trucks in pairs.
Reloading the fixed launchers takes a few minutes.

The Missile

The
Pechora 2M uses 2 different missile versions namely,

- The V-600 (or 5V24) had the smallest warhead
with only 60 kg of High-Explosive. It had a range of about 15 km.

- The later version named V-601 (or 5V27). It
has a length of 6.09 m, a wing span of 2.2 m and a body diameter of 0.375 m.
This missile weighs 953 kg at launch, and has a 70 kg warhead containing 33 kg
of HE and 4,500 fragments. The minimum range is 3.5 km, and the maximum is 35
km. The intercept altitudes are between 100 m and 18 km.

The Radars

The
launchers are accompanied by a command truck and three primary radar systems
namely,

"Flat
Face"/"Squat Eye" is mounted on a van ("Squat Eye" on
a taller mast for better performance against low-altitude targets also an IFF
[Identifies Friend or Foe]), "Low Blow" on a trailer and "Side
Net" on a box-bodied trailer.

The
main SNR target-finder radar system has three separate radar antennas namely,

-Target distance finder antenna,

-Target height relative to North Pole finder
antenna, and

- The antenna catching the radio signal sent
back from the Missile in flight so that
the missile position is accurately located.

Mobile Missile battalions of Burma Army

Each
Mobile Missile Battalion of Burma army is known to be equipped with four
Pechora 2M SAM systems with at least 64 missiles. Each missile battalion has
its own secret radio wave length different from other battalion’s so that the
missile systems will not interfere with each other. Once that wavelength is
leaked or expired a new wave length is to be re-assigned.

Burma Military’s Bureau of Air Defense

The Air
Defense Command was formed during the late 1990s but was not fully operational
until late 1999. It was renamed Bureau of Air Defense in the early 2000s.

Also In
early 2000, Burma military established Myanmar Integrated Air Defense System
(MIADS) with help from Russia, Ukraine and China. It is a tri-service bureau
with units from all three branches of Myanmar Armed Forces.

All Air
Defense assets except Anti-Aircraft-Artillery within army arsenal are
integrated into MIADS. (AAA guns are mostly unguided and deployed to use in
barrage-style firing against attacking aircraft.) MIADS is directly answerable
to Bureau of Air Defense under Ministry of Defense.

In
2010, Myanmar Air Defense Command has completed installation of fibre optic communication
network throughout the country. Those network are to be used for Air defense
operations between Central Command HQ from capital & several air bases,
early warning radar stations & mobile anti air craft missile &
artillery units.

After
completion of fibre optic project & radar stations, MIADS (Myanmar
Integrated Air Defense System) becomes the most advance AD system in the
region.

Sector Operations Commands

Under
MIADS, the country was divided into six Air Defense Sectors, each controlled by
a Sector Operations Centre (SOC) and reporting directly to the National Air
Defense Operations Centre (ADOC) in Yangon.

Sector
Operation Centres and their Headquarters locations are:

- Northern SOC (Myitkyina),

- Southern SOC (Myeik),

- Western SOC (Sittwe),

- Eastern SOC (Tachilek),

- South Eastern SOC (Yay),
and

- Central SOC (Meikhtila).

Each
SOC transmitted data back to Intercept Operations Centre (IOC), which in turn
controlled SAM batteries and fighter/interceptor squadrons at various Air
Bases.

Tor 1M Integrated Mobile Missile System.

Each
IOC was optimized to direct either SAMs or fighter/interceptor aircraft against
incoming enemy aircraft or missile. Each IOC was connected to observer and
early warning area reporting posts (RP) via military owned underground fibre
optic cable network.

There are
more than 100 radar stations located at approximately 40 sites throughout the
country. New Air Defence radars such as 1L117 radars, Galaxy Early Warning
Radar and P series radars are installed in all radar stations.

Each
Sector Operation Centre (SOC) is commanded by a Major General and it consists
of one air defence division from Myanmar Army and one fighter-interceptor wing
from Myanmar Air Force. Sometimes Air Defence Frigates from Myanmar Navy also
operates under the direct command of respective SOC.

Each
Air Defence Division is commanded by a Brigadier General and consists of three
Air Defense Tactical Operations Command (TOC) and support units.

-One Medium Range Surface to Air Missile
Tactical Operations Command (MRSAM-TOC), with three battalions equipped with
Buk M-1 or Kub missile system is deployed in an Area Defence Belt role.

-One Short Range Air Defence Tactical
Operations Command (SHORAD-TOC), with three battalions equipped with Pechora 2M
and/or more-modern Tor M-1 missile systems is deployed in a Point Defence role
for critical areas such as radar stations, fighter bases and SOC headquarters.

Each
fighter-interceptor wing commanded by a Brigadier General is composed of three
Fighter squadrons of either MiG-29 or F-7M Airguard Interceptors (ten aircraft
per squadron) and their ground base support units.